Baby Peeper Alert!

So, somehow this became a chicken blog.  But, that's ok, right?

Anyway, Nynaeve has been broody all summer.  Taking pity on me, my mom sent up a couple of fertilized eggs from her flock. 

A few days ago, I came home from work and peeked into the coop to check on Nynaeve when, lo, a teensy tinsy bird face looked back me from under the new mother's suddenly giant wing! 

So now, I present to you Baby Peeper:

The New Flock

It's been a few weeks since we buried Egwene. Since then we've expanded our chicken flock a little bit - up to 3 now! Still no eggs, though...

                               

Nynaeve is the remaining original chicken. She's been broody for the past 2 or 3 months... pretty much the whole summer. She takes a break from egg-sitting duties everyday for about an hour to let the new chickens know that this is HER house and she's the BOSS. 

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This is Mieran. She came from my mother's flock, where she was being, basically, tortured daily by the rooster and other hens. My mom wasn't sure she was going to survive long, and when I first met Mieran, I wasn't either. She has balance issues, her head has been stripped bald, and one of her eyes appeared to be missing and the socket infected.

However, a few days of calm seem to have done wonders for her! Her feathers are growing back in and her eye seems to be healing quite nicely. On top of that, she has developed a bit of spunk. The trauma of her previous life is still fresh, however, and she's yet to lay an egg for us.

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And lastly, this is Siuan. She, too, was getting picked on in her original flock, so her previous home put her up for "adoption" on Craigslist. She came with the name "Speckle", for obvious reasons. (Before learning this, my neighbors, who fell madly in love with her at first sight, suggested the name "Midnight Speckle".) We renamed her Siuan, because we're big nerds.

Siuan is just 4 months old, and thus not yet laying. But she could start any day now!

She's still at the bottom of the pecking order here, but she doesn't seem to mind.  All in all, the 3 birds seem to be getting along pretty well, with only very occasional bouts of bullying.

Egwene the Chicken

Last Friday I awoke to a horrific sound - the sound of a chicken screaming.

They often cry in the morning, because they want out of their coop to hunt bugs.  I will often sleep through that until my alarm goes off.  But that morning, the sound was very different.  I glanced out the window and saw a raccoon trying to slowly rip off the head of one of my chickens, Egwene, who had managed to get out of the coop on her own.  Alone.

I ran outside yelling and hissing and scared the evil creature away.  Then I called in sick to work and spent the rest of the weekend increasing chicken security and keeping an eye on my now catatonic chicken. I wasn't too worried.  She seemed to be moving around fine after the attack, even if she spent the next few days hiding in the coop.  My mother told me of one of her chickens who had survived a raccoon attack.  The bird had hidden for 3 days, but was afterward fine.

But Tuesday, my neighbor called me at work to report that Egwene wasn't walking.  When I got home I found her lying awkwardly in the shade where they had placed her after she stumbled out of the coop.  But she was drinking water and was alert. I attributed her weakness to sitting in one position for 3 days with no food or water. Over the next few days she seemed to be improving, but I attempted to contact my vet (who still hasn't gotten back to me, btw) to see if they could recommend someone to look her over, anyway.

Thursday, she died.

We buried her in the forest at the end of our street, surrounded by tall grass.  She loved grass.

Fuzzy Dinosaur People

A few days ago, Boyfriend told me that our cat, Whiskey, had caught a mouse or a mole or something.  He had found her playing with it's lifeless corpse when he got home from work.  This was, reportedly, very cute.  However, at the time the story was related to me, the poor rodent's remains' whereabouts were unknown.

Today I was futzing around in my backyard and I saw one of my chickens, Nyneave, tossing around a dead mouse.  This was somehow cute.  She was trying in vain to rip bits of it off to snack on.  First she tried to tear off a leg.  Then she pecked at its viscera, trying to get the liver or some spleen.  Her efforts got her nowhere - but she didn't give up.  She lifted up her head, mouse in her beak, opened up her gullet and swallowed it whole.

I couldn't tear my eyes away.

Afterwards, as I was reeling from the insanity of what I had just witnessed, my neighbour threw rose petals over the fence for dessert. 

The First Dozen

Meet Nyneave and Egwene (from left to right).
Yes, we're big Wheel of Time nerds.

Egwene is a Black Minorca and Nyneave is a Dark Brahma. We got them both this May. Egwene recently began laying eggs, but Nyneave just hangs around looking worried whenever Egwene starts squawking. I started to worry about her, but a little bit of research revealed that Dark Brahmas can take up to 2 years to become real women!

Egwene has finally reached her first dozen! We're very proud of her. I decorated an egg carton specially.

Her eggs began very tiny, almost golfball sized (it was very cute). But now she lays real sized eggs.

She's laid a great many more than a dozen by now, but she's finally caught up to our egg usage. I'm gonna have to make dozens of cookies today to keep on top of it! Once Nyneave begins laying, we'll have to start giving eggs away!